President McIver's Public Comment at Regents Meeting March 13, 2019

UC Regents Meeting
March 13, 2019
UCLA
Public Comment

Good morning, Regents. My name is Mia McIver, I’m a faculty member here at UCLA, and I’m President of University Council-American Federation of Teachers. UC-AFT librarians have been working without a contract for five and a half months. We’re fighting for academic freedom, for an end to temporary appointments in permanent archives, and competitive salaries to recruit and retain highly qualified librarians. Tell Labor Relations to settle a fair contract with librarians now!

UC contract faculty will begin bargaining next month. Students at the greatest public university in the country deserve faculty with stable jobs. But there is currently 30% turnover of UC-AFT faculty on every UC campus, every year, depriving students of mentorship and continuity from exceptional scholar teachers.

Here’s an example of how the system works to tell faculty we’re not welcome. At the moment, UCLA is refusing to offer new faculty orientations on campus. As a result, only 1% of new UC-AFT faculty have received an orientation this year and are entering classrooms to teach without a basic understanding of the resources available to them. This is not only a disservice to faculty, it’s a disservice to students, who deserve fully supported faculty in their classrooms.

Because contract faculty are more likely than Senate faculty to be women and people of color, these and other exclusions contribute to racism and sexism at the UC. You have the power to change that, and we ask that you set the tone from the top.

Settle fair contracts with UC-AFT, AFSCME, and UPTE now, and get control of UC PATH. Some UCLA faculty are currently forced to skip meals because UC PATH is unlawfully docking their paychecks. Imagine if we took the $200 million in UC PATH cost overruns and put it toward education. The UCLA Labor Coalition stands united in confronting and correcting these violations of an employer’s most basic obligations.

Watch a video of Mia's comment here.